Best Friends
by lauraforthewinoswald
Summary: Amy, Rory and Melody meet for the first time in the playground at school. A little fluffy piece of how The Ponds came to be.
1. Chapter 1

Amelia Pond spent every recess sitting under the slide by the jungle gym frantically coloring a bright blue box on a piece of yellow construction paper. She was an odd girl who spent a great deal of time alone. She didn't want to be a loner but she spoke about her imaginary friend a bit too often and the other kids called her crazy. Amy's fascination with her imaginary friend made the adults uncomfortable too. She school suggested she see a psychiatrist but no one could get through to her.

Rory was a loner too but not in the same way Amy was. Amy was talkative and definitely not shy. She intimidated others so she found herself alone a lot of the time. Rory was quite the opposite. He had this overwhelming need to be needed. He craved companionship but he wasn't very good at starting conversation with people. He was very quiet and shy around strangers but he desperately wanted to make friends.

"Hi" Rory whispered as he sat under the slide with Amy. It was hot out and boys were chasing him with a big red rubber ball. They decided he was the target for the day. "Mind if I sit here?"

"Yeah, whatever" Amy continued to color.

"Umm... what are you making?" Rory wanted to be friendly but feared bothering her with his questions.

"The Tardis." Amy put the picture right up to his face. "It's a spaceship!" She suddenly got excited. "It looks like a box and it says police but he's not a police man!" She pointed at the man she'd drawn beside the blue box. "He's The Doctor" Amy whispered the last bit with dramatic emphasis.

"What kind of doctor?" Rory was quite taken by Amy's story telling.

"The Raggedy Doctor." Amy handed Rory the picture. "You can have this one. I have a million pictures of The Doctor at home"

"Wow, thanks" Rory smiled and felt quite happy with himself for having a successful interaction with someone for once.

Amy was also happy she had someone listening to her. She hated being alone but she didn't show it. Amelia Pond wasn't afraid of anything; or so she lead others to believe.

"FIGHT!" They heard kids in the playground screaming. Amy and Rory came out from under the slide to see a girl punch another kid square in the jaw. "Mommy!" He screamed as he ran away.

Mels stopped when she saw Amy and Rory watching her dust herself off. "Who are you?" She shot them a look.

"I'm Amy! This is Rory" Amy pointed to her new friend.

"A boyfriend" Melody Zucker smiled mischievously.

"A friend friend" Amy replied quickly as Rory stood by trying not to be embarrassed.

"Ok sure" Melody winked. They weren't ready yet, of course. They were only children. Melody looked just like any other 7 year old but she'd been around a lot longer than that. She had a little bit of trouble keeping track but she remembered it was about 25-ish years ago when she found herself in a New York alleyway regenerating. She'd done it once before but she couldn't remember how long ago it was. Mels had nearly 40 years of experience but she looked like a child.

Melody knew who Amy and Rory were. She'd heard the legends and made her way to Leadworth to find them. She adopted the surname Zucker and was given a place to stay in a nearby children's home but it was her parents she wished she could be home with.

Melody was sent to the principal's office for the fight in the playground. She had a real talent for causing trouble. Mels sat as she looked longingly out the office door to see Amy and Rory's eyes peeking through the crack of the slightly open door.

She walked out slowly with a smile on her face. Melody was so happy to have found her parents even if they were looking at her with a mixture of awe and disapproval.

"Are you alright?" Rory asked a little worried for her yet slightly frightened by her. "Are you in trouble?" He didn't want her to be in trouble but Rory was pretty sure she was. He had an overwhelming urge to make sure she was safe although they'd only just met. Rory was always the empathetic sort but this was different somehow.

"I can get a bit crazy sometimes." Mels shrugged with a smirk on her face. "But I don't know why everyone's on my back all the time."

"You punched Jeff in the face. He went to the nurse's office with a loose tooth. You literally knocked his teeth out." Rory explained. "It's no surprise you've made the principal's most wanted list." Rory noticed Melody was looking a bit down on herself. "But I know Jeff and..sometimes I kind of want to punch him in the face too." He smiled when he saw his words made her feel better. "But I'm not agreeing with it either." He felt the need to add.

"Yeah, like he said." Amelia added as she crossed her arms in disapproval.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I was never very good at self-control." Melody rolled her eyes. She couldn't show it but deep down she was so overjoyed to have her parents back. Even if they were trying to scold her. "Thanks for checking on me though.. I mean, no one ever cares if I get in trouble"

"Do you not have any friends?" Amy asked.

"No" Melody crossed her arms.

"I don't really have any friends either." Rory looked down at the ground as he spoke.

"Not true because I'm your friend now." Amelia corrected him very matter of factly. Rory's face lit up at the realization that Amy had officially considered him a friend.

Amy went into her backpack and found a drawing she'd made and handed it to Melody. "This is me and this is the doctor. We're holding hands because we're going on an adventure together. Now that you're my friend too I'll add you to the picture so you can travel with us. I'll draw you right here." Amy pointed to the blank stop to the left of the paper.

"What about me?" Rory felt left out suddenly.

"Um.. There's no room left. But why don't you guys come over for a sleepover party and Rory, you can be The Doctor and we'll be your companions? I'll dress you up like him so we can play." Amy was getting very excited about her new friends.

Never could they have imagined just how important their friendship could be.


	2. Chapter 2

Amy started dressing Rory up like The Raggedy Doctor every time he came over to play. He played along in her games the way she wanted but deep down she knew he didn't believe The Doctor was real the way she did. He was just too nice or too scared to call her out on it. Amy knew Rory had heard about how she bit her latest physiatrist. The whole school knew but he still stuck around.

Rory really was a little scared of his new friend but it was more of a fearful admiration then a fear of getting bitten. She crushed everyone at tryouts for the school's hockey team. No other girls had come to the tryouts. Even though she'd made the team and shown herself to be plenty tough; one of the boys still felt like he needed to prove something.

"Why do you act like a boy?" He scoffed. They were outside after school in the playground waiting for their parents.

"I count as a boy" Amy glared.

"And who's this, your girlfriend?" The bully laughed as he pointed at Rory.

"Leave her alone" Rory glared at him. The boy pushed Rory down to the ground. He landed bottom first in the sandbox.

"Don't you touch him!" Amy tackled the boy to the ground and whacked him with her backpack.

"Get off me, weirdo!" The bully tried to cover his face with his hands.

The bully's mother drove up to the playground just in time to see the fight and quickly ran over to check on him.

"You stay away from my son! You hear me?" The woman stood her kid up and dusted him off. "Are you ok, sweetie? She didn't bite you did she? I hear she bites. Like a rabid dog, that girl." She ran off with her rotten little boy leaving Amy and Rory by the sandbox.

"Are you ok, Amy?" Rory took Amy's hand and checked a little scratch on her palm.

Amy quickly snatched her hand away. "I'm fine" She walked away and hid underneath the slide.

Rory walked over and peaked his head in underneath the slide. Amy kept her back turned to him. "Amy..?" He asked quietly.

"Go away!" Amy yelled back. Rory looked physically hurt by his friend's cold shoulder.

"Rory! Let's go" Rory heard his mother calling out to him from the car park. He quickly ran to her and jumped inside the car. His mother rolled her eyes at the sight of her sandy passenger seat. "Look at this mess"

"I fell in the sandbox" Rory spoke with his head down.

"Oh, I'm sorry, darling" His mother noticed her son's sad expression. "Are you alright?"

"No.." Rory sniffled. "Amy doesn't like me anymore."

"What!? She wasn't the one that pushed you in the sandbox, was she?" His mother had been worried about their friendship after the things she'd heard.

"No" Rory whispered as he looked out the window at the houses speeding past. "But she yelled at me. She told me to go away."

"Maybe she just needs a little alone time" His mother tried to reassure him.

"Maybe..." Rory held back tears. He didn't want to lose his friend.

That night Amy's aunt got a call from the school's office. Amy was to report to the principal first thing in the morning. Amy dragged her red rain boots across the school hallway to the principal's office, purposely squeaking with every step.

"I know you've been having some issues lately and things have been a little hard for you." The principal laced her fingers together as she leaned in over her desk to speak. "Some parents wanted me to expel you but I tried to stick up for you. Don't make me regret it."

Amy quietly shook her head yes. "I hit him cos he pushed Rory." She added.

"It's good that you want to protect your friend." The principal was also glad to hear this new friend of hers was actually real. "Call an adult next time you see trouble."

Amelia quietly shook her head in agreement again and was allowed to leave the office with a warning. Rory had been waiting for her outside.

"Are.. you ok..?" Rory whispered.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Amy kept her gaze down at the ground at they walked down the hall. She felt Rory's hand slip into hers as they walked. She was somewhat surprised although she didn't want to show it. A boy holding her hand? If anyone in class saw them, they'd never hear the end of it. She could already hear the taunting K-I-S-S-I-N-G being sung at their faces.

But as embarrassing as that would be, she wouldn't mind it too much if it did happen. The concept of kissing was gross but if it had to be anyone she would pick Rory. Though she'd never say that aloud. She was only 7 and was certainly not ready to call anyone her boyfriend. In fact, she wasn't sure if she'd ever want to have a boyfriend at all. The concept seemed far too complicated. But she did like Rory and Rory seemed to like her too.

"Sorry" Rory noticed Amy pull her hand away as they got back to their classroom door. "I won't do it again."

"You can do it again." Amy whispered. "Just don't tell anybody we hold hands, ok? I don't want anyone to think you're my boyfriend."

"Right" Rory tried to hide that his feelings were hurt. "We're still friends, right?"

"We're best friends." Amy smiled relieving his worry.

Mels came running up to them. "Well, look how the tables have turned. Now you're the one in the principal's office." She smiled. "So, how did it go?"

"She said she was going to expel me." Amelia told the story as if it were far more exciting than it really was. "But she let me off with a warning, for now."

"When The Doctor comes back, that'll show em." Mels believed in the doctor just as much as Amelia did, even though she hadn't met him. Poor Rory was the only one who didn't understand what he was missing.


End file.
